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M87 Black Hole
'What is it?' A black hole is a region of spacetime where there is a strong gravitational force that is pulling everything around it towards its center. There is nothing on the entire earth that has the ability to escape the gravitational pull of a black hole. This is why it is a major concern in the scientific field because if the M87 black hole were to reach the earth, there is no known defense against it.' ' Description of M87 Black Hole Black Holes have a boundary around them called an event horizon. The event horizon is the closest an object can get to the black hole without being sucked in. The event horizon emits radiation which means that it is a non-rotating black hole. (To learn more about the discovery of black hole radiation scroll down to Stephen Hawking.) There are two types of black holes, rotating and non rotating. Black holes also have radioactive particles that emit light and are released from the event horizon. So in the case of a non-rotating black hole, the particles are able to emit a certain glow around the event horizon. However, in the case of a rotating black hole, the particles are moving at such a speed that the particles are not visible to anyone or anything, which is why there is no color or glow around the rotating black holes. M87 is a supermassive elliptical black hole that has a mass almost seven times larger than the sun. This makes the mass of the Black Hole at a whopping 1.4 x 14^40 kg. ' 'Current News Back in 2017 Katie Bouman working with the Event Horizon Telescope and they had taken a photo of what seemed to be a blazing swirl of gas. However, after detailed examination and reconstruction of the photo taken Bouman realized that the algorithm she created to search for an anomaly had taken the first actual photo of a black hole. Bouman had linked together eight telescopes to ensure that there would be enough power to capture the image of the black hole. ''' '''The first image taken was actually of the entire gas exchange between the black hole and the space around it. However Bouman reconstructed the image to realize that there was a center to the image where all the gas was revolving around, and this is where she realized she made one of the greatest discoveries However, Bouman would not have made this incredible discovery if it weren't for one of the biggest influencers in the field. 'Stephen Hawking' Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942 in Oxford England. As a student Hawking wanted to study physics even though his father wanted him to study medicine. If he had gone into medicine imagine where the field of physics would be today. Hawking had major impressions on the big bang theory and he helped find some key evidence and facts that helped support the theory. In his book, The Theory of Everything Origin and Fate of the Universe, Hawking talks about working with Starobinsky and Zeldovich to find out more about Black Holes and how they emit radiation. Together they discovered that non-rotating black holes emit a glow that can allow them to be visually viewed. And it was with this information that Katie Bourman was able to create an algorithm that allowed the Event Horizon Telescope to capture the first photo of the M87 Black Hole.